When it's all worth it...

For months now, I knew that end of October would be busy....very busy! After two days of the UK Wedding Show in Manchester, I got up at 3.20am on Monday morning, threw random clothes in a backpack, and drove for four hours down to Trowbridge (near Bath) for a course with the lovely Julie Anne Denton. So, for weeks, I told myself "just make it to that Monday night" - you'll be able to sleep that night, and all will be well on Tuesday. I don't think I fooled anybody when I tried to look lively yesterday, but, lively or not, I don't believe I've learnt so much in a day for a long time.

The course is about flameworking and sandcasting - flameworking pieces that then get put into cast glass pieces - if that makes sense. We saw a demonstration with Julie doing it, and we had plenty of torch time - aided and abetted by Kim of Liquid Glass allowing us to use the studio until 7pm. I finally turned off the torch at 6.50pm, and the me-time at the torch (the first time to *play* for months since we emptied the garage) was *almost* as good as sleep ;-)

Among the lampworking demonstrations Julie did were one of her gorgeous ladies - this one a juggler - and a dichroic vortex marble. I have to admit I only took photos of the sandcasting demonstration, after that I was busy!!

This is an all-round course - as Julie explained, we'll be having a lot of test pieces and - we hope - one beautiful piece at the end. So we spent time drawing, and thinking, and trying stuff at the torch. The kiln got quite full with all our flamework, including a couple of marbles, a space rocket, and a *lot* of ladies!

I'll try and blog every day, so watch this space! Photos of the course will be uploaded here.